Ch. 21
Chapter 21: Collection Call
“Being a lawyer is this profitable?”
Shen Qingzhou pulled out the golden bank card that the ATM had just dispensed, his whole person somewhat dumbfounded.
As for the password, Su Xi had sent it to him via WeChat. The friend she had previously deleted had been added back just yesterday.
Su Xi didn’t tell him how much money was on the card. It was only when he happened to pass by an ATM on the way to freeload a meal at the welfare institute that he whimsically checked it.
There was actually fifty thousand yuan in it. This wasn’t a credit card, but a debit card. If he wanted, he could withdraw all fifty thousand directly, or transfer it to his own bank card.
But Shen Qingzhou didn’t withdraw it all. He only took out two hundred yuan. That way, he wouldn’t need to freeload a meal at the welfare institute at noon. He now had money for food and could even buy a pack of cigarettes.
The Five Disadvantages and Three Deficiencies were not about treating people to meals, writing essays, or doing embroidery. They were a genuine hidden rule that could take a person’s life.
As long as he didn’t withdraw the money and left it on the card, then the money still belonged to Su Xi and had nothing to do with him.
He could eat and drink what he needed, and wouldn’t be so poor that he had to freeload meals at the welfare institute.
Just as Shen Qingzhou was savoring this thought—
A student riding a bicycle suddenly sped toward him. Fortunately, Shen Qingzhou reacted quickly and stepped back, narrowly avoiding the collision.
But before he could relax, every hair on his body stood on end. Without thinking, he leapt sideways.
A flowerpot fell from above and shattered into two pieces exactly where he had just been standing.
“You damn it, it’s only two hundred yuan, and you already want my life?”
Shen Qingzhou angrily waved his fists at the sky a few times, then hurried into a nearby small shop.
“Boss, give me a pack of Hongwan cigarettes,” Shen Qingzhou said.
After paying, he left the shop and didn’t dare linger. He immediately turned and entered a small restaurant next door.
“Boss, what would you like to eat?”
“Just give me something worth 135 yuan. I can pay first.”
The boss was a bit stunned. He had never seen such a bizarre way of ordering food.
But money was money. In the end, the boss picked three dishes for Shen Qingzhou, totaling 140 yuan, with a five-yuan discount.
While waiting for the dishes, Shen Qingzhou opened the pack of Hongwan cigarettes he had just bought, placed one between his lips, and then realized he didn’t have a lighter.
Just as he was debating whether to borrow a light from the restaurant owner or ask for a lighter on credit from the shop next door, his phone rang.
It was an unfamiliar number, but Shen Qingzhou answered without hesitation. After all, in his line of work, he often received calls from unknown numbers.
“Shen Qingzhou, f*ck your mother, pay back the money! How long do you plan to drag this out? If you don’t repay, I’ll have someone deal with you…”
The moment the call connected, a stream of furious curses came from the other end.
Shen Qingzhou quietly waited for the other party to finish, then calmly uttered two words.
“No money.”
“Oh, alright. When you have money, remember to repay,” the other side replied just as casually.
There was not a trace of the earlier anger, as if they had a split personality.
“Okay. But you changed your number again?” Shen Qingzhou said.
“The previous ones were all blocked by you, right? Please don’t block this one again. Keep the line open, brother. We’re all just working—don’t make things difficult for me,” the debt collector said, surprisingly understanding.
“Alright, I guarantee I won’t block this one.”
“Thanks, goodbye.”
Click—the other party hung up directly.
Shen Qingzhou also immediately added the number to his blacklist.
He received more than a dozen such collection calls every day and had long grown accustomed to them.
The reason for so many collection calls was naturally because he owed online loans to over a dozen platforms.
Of course, he hadn’t spent that money on himself. It had all been transferred to the welfare institute’s account.
Naturally, he hadn’t done this out of kindness or some charitable impulse.
Rather, he was building a moat for himself—what if one day someone suddenly transferred him five million yuan? Wouldn’t that be fatal?
So his credit record was ruined, his contact list was filled with fake entries, his bank cards had all been canceled, and even court summons had to line up…
In this way, he became someone that collection companies couldn’t effectively deal with.
But debt collectors didn’t care about that. They would still call when it was time to collect. Sometimes there were several calls a day, often accompanied by bombardments of calls and messages.
Fortunately, with modern technology, for every spear there was a shield. He blocked almost everything, and it didn’t affect his life at all. He ate and drank as usual.
“Boss, lend me a lighter.”
Shen Qingzhou called out to the owner who was cooking inside.
“It’s on the counter—take it yourself,” the owner replied from behind the serving window.
Shen Qingzhou directly picked up the lighter from the table, lit his cigarette, and casually slipped it into his pocket.
Taking without asking was stealing—but he had already told the owner, so it didn’t count.
And stealing a lighter wasn’t really stealing—it was just ‘taking along’.
Small restaurants might not have the best taste, but their portions were always generous.
The one Shen Qingzhou randomly chose was exactly like that—two meat dishes and one vegetable, three large plates in total, and the taste was actually quite good.
After eating until his stomach was round, he burped contentedly and walked out of the restaurant, rubbing his belly.
Then he subconsciously began thinking about what to eat for dinner.
Suddenly, he realized—he had money now. He could eat whatever he wanted.
No, that wasn’t his money. That was Su Xi’s money. He quickly corrected himself.
Shen Qingzhou used Su Xi’s card again to buy two jin of bananas, then leisurely headed back.
Although the fruit shop owner seemed a bit displeased when he paid by card—who even used cards to buy fruit these days?
Everyone had WeChat or Alipay.
Shen Qingzhou had those too, but none were verified with real names, so payments and transfers were out of the question.
That was why his consulting office’s payment account and QR code both used the welfare institute’s account.
Because of this, he took on plenty of work and earned quite a bit of money, yet he still lived hand-to-mouth, often relying on friends and Old Zhong for support—or freeloading meals at the welfare institute like today.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered using someone else’s ID to open a bank account. That would be easy for him—there were so many children at the welfare institute, he could borrow one casually.
But that method couldn’t bypass the Fate of Lacking Wealth, because the money was still earned by him and couldn’t be used on himself.
Logically speaking, although the Five Disadvantages and Three Deficiencies were a form of heavenly punishment, they shouldn’t have been this extreme. There should still have been a sliver of hope.
For example, lacking wealth meant one couldn’t be rich, but basic necessities—food, clothing, shelter—should still be guaranteed.
But Shen Qingzhou’s “lack of wealth” had become so extreme mainly because he used Unorthodox Techniques to avoid widowhood, loneliness, isolation, disability, as well as fate and authority (authority not only referring to power, but also fortune).
Thus, this final deficiency became exceptionally harsh and extreme.
Carrying the bag, Shen Qingzhou had just gone upstairs when he saw three people standing at his door.
Two of them were naturally Jiang Haichao and his daughter, with Xiao Qiu beside them.
There was also an old man holding a child.
“You prepared everything so quickly?”
Shen Qingzhou was somewhat surprised, his gaze falling on the child in the old man’s arms.
The little one’s face was pale, his spirit somewhat weak, yet he still stared at Shen Qingzhou with bright, curious eyes.
“This is my old friend Lu Guohua, and this is his grandson Lu Zhaozhao. He has congenital osteogenesis imperfecta. Can you see if there’s any problem?”
Shen Qingzhou took a deep drag from the last bit of cigarette between his fingers. The black pupils in his eyes suddenly expanded, and the whites were instantly swallowed by ink-like darkness. His eyes became as deep and black as an abyss, staring fixedly at the child in Lu Guohua’s arms.
Lu Guohua, who had been curiously observing Shen Qingzhou, was so frightened that he nearly dropped the child.
At that moment, Shen Qingzhou softly uttered a few words.
“Not a big problem.”
As his words fell, countless tadpole-like dark patterns suddenly appeared on Lu Zhaozhao’s delicate cheeks, then receded like a tide. Shen Qingzhou also returned to normal.
This frightened the three people present badly.
“Th-this… what just happened?” Jiang Haichao asked, his voice trembling.
Lu Guohua also anxiously asked his grandson in his arms,
“Zhaozhao, how do you feel? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”